Abstract

This lesson is devoted to Internet research on a specific topic: finding topics
in sports where probability is relevant. The goal of the lesson is to introduce
some statistics and probability concepts by looking at practical questions that
arise in professional sports.

Objectives

Upon completion of this lesson, students will:

have seen that knowledge of probability concepts is useful when looking at sports

have learned to search for a specific topic on the internet

Standards

The activities and discussions in this lesson address the following
NCTM standards:

Data Analysis and Probability

Formulate questions that can be addressed with data and collect, organize, and display relevant data to answer them

formulate questions, design studies, and collect data about a characteristic shared by two populations or different characteristics within one population

Develop and evaluate inferences and predictions that are based on data

use observations about differences between two or more samples to make conjectures about the populations from which the samples were taken

Understand and apply basic concepts of probability

understand and use appropriate terminology to describe complementary and mutually exclusive events

use proportionality and a basic understanding of probability to make and test conjectures about the results of experiments and simulations

compute probabilities for simple compound events, using such methods as organized lists, tree diagrams, and area models

Student Prerequisites

Arithmetic: Students must be able to:

relate the sports information they collect to mathematical expression

use simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division when working with the sports
information they collect

Technological: Students must be able to:

perform basic mouse manipulations such as point,
click and drag

use a browser such as Netscape for experimenting with
the activities

Teacher Preparation

Students will need:

Access to a browser

Pencil and Paper

Lesson Outline

Search for probability information in the web sites related to the following sports:

Students search one of the four sports
provided (or find information about a different sport, if desired) to find
connections between the sport and probability. Each student or group of students
can find and then share a piece of information about chances to win against a
particular player or team, chances to make a "hole in one" in golf, chances of
making a basket in basketball, or anything else connected with probability
that they may find on these sports pages.

Search for answers to specific questions. Each student or group of students can come up with
specific questions concerning sports, and try to find answers using Internet resources. These sample questions about golf can be used as examples.

Sports challenge: "Do you believe it?" Students or groups of students find piece of probability
information on sports, and then challenge another group to confirm or refute their data.
Students do not necessarily give the correct answer, making the activity more
interesting. For example, having found that the record drive for a long drive in
a golf contest is 448 yards, the students may challenge another group: "Is it
true that the record drive is above 470 yards?" Students can give hints, for
example, the address of the website where they have found the information.

Alternate Outlines

For an introduction to the difference between probability and statistics, students can
read the Probability vs. Statistics discussion.

Suggested Follow-Up

After this lesson, the students will have seen practical applications of how probability is used in
everyday situations such as sports. The next lesson, Ideas That Lead to
Probability, introduces ideas that are the basis of probability theory. By using everyday
experiences and intuitive understanding, this lesson gives students a gradual introduction to
probability. Students will work with random number generators learn what it means for a game to
be fair.